LAPT8 Panama: Iermolcheva dips, retakes the lead

When the season started, no woman had ever made it heads-up in an LAPT.

Now two have.

Two months ago in Viña del Mar, Renata Teixeira made the LAPT8 Chile final table as the short stack. Teixeira battled and doubled her way through the competition and made it heads-up with the chip lead.

Renata Teixeira at LAPT8 Chile

But it wasn't in the cards for Teixeira.

Oscar Alache, the eventual champion, won a series of pots off of Teixeira, took the lead and then eliminated the Brazilian player in second place.

Now another woman is knocking on victory's door.

Their gender and poker skill might be the only things the two have in common though. Teixeira is a small, bubbly Brazilian with purple hair while Iermolcheva is a tall, fair-skinned Ukranian who's rarely spoken at the table.

Another key difference is that Iermolcheva started the final table with the chip lead.

Kazemipur took back the lead after the final table started and dealt all the eliminations except for one. Despite that, Iermolcheva continued to win big pots off of everyone and started the heads-up match with a slight lead.

But Kazemipur took the initiative early on and chipped Iermolcheva down to about 2.5 million.

The she started coming back.

Iermolchova worked her way back to about even and then the took the lead after a massive pot.

In that hand, Iermolcheva raised to 160,000 and Kazemipur called.

The flop came 8♦6♠[10d] and Kazemipur check-called a 190,000 bet.

The turn was a 3♠ and Iermolcheva bet 275,000. Kazemipur called and the 9♣ completed the board.

Kazemipur checked again and Iermolcheva bet 400,000. Kazemipur thought for some time and then raised to 1 million. It was Iermolcheva's time to think and after a few minutes, she called.

Kazemipur showed K♥8♥ and Iermolcheva turned over [10h]6♥ to take down the 3.2 million chip pot.

Iermolcheva jumped into the lead with 5.9 million while Kazemipur dropped to 2.4 million.

The possibility of the LAPTs first female champion is better than ever.